Film | The Verge

Japanese man sentenced to prison for posting spoilers

2026-04-20T16:02:58-04:00

Though it's very common for entertainment writers to describe some narrative elements of the films and shows that they're covering, a Japanese court has determined that the practice can sometimes be tantamount to copyright infringement.

Last Thursday, the Tokyo District Court ruled that 39-year-old Wataru Takeuchi was guilty of violating Japanese law that prohibits the creation of "a new work by making creative modifications to the original while preserving its essential characteristics." Takeuchi worked as administrator of a website that published lengthy, spoiler-heavy descriptions from popular movies and series. And two of Takeuchi's "ar …

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The Elden Ring movie hits theaters in March 2028

2026-04-20T09:25:40-04:00

It's going to be a little while before The Lands Between is realized in movie form. Bandai Namco just confirmed that the live-action Elden Ring movie, which was announced last year, is expected to hit theaters on March 3rd, 2028, with production kicking off this spring.

Based on FromSoftware's open-world fantasy RPG from 2022, Elden Ring is being produced by A24, and Alex Garland - best-known as the writer of the 28 Days zombie franchise and directing the likes of Annihilation and Civil War - is both writing and directing the film.

While we don't know much else about the movie just yet, today's announcement also introduced the main cast. T …

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Godzilla Minus Zero stomps through New York in first teaser trailer

2026-04-14T19:05:09-04:00

*insert Godzilla screeching sound* Here's the very first look at the next big kaiju feature. Godzilla Minus Zero will continue the story of 2023's Godzilla Minus One, which returned the franchise to the more grounded tone established in the original film, and while the new teaser trailer doesn't show a whole lot, it suggests some big things for the series.

Minus Zero is set in 1949, two years after the first movie, "and continues the story of the Shikishima family as they face an all-new calamity," according to the official logline. Apparently that includes shifting the setting from Tokyo to New York, as we see Godzilla right next to the St …

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The world’s oldest art, now in 6K IMAX

2026-04-14T15:46:05-04:00

The earliest paintings were made over 32,000 years ago - the very first forms of art and culture. They weren't discovered until 1994, when cave explorers in France stumbled into the Chauvet Cave. More than a decade later, filmmaker Werner Herzog was allowed rare access to the highly guarded prehistoric site to shoot what would become the lauded 3D documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. It is a strange and moving film, one wherein Herzog convincingly argues, in his heavily enunciated German accent, that these caverns are the birthplace of "ze mo-dern hu-man soul." Fifteen years since its premiere, the movie has achieved a cult-like status, and …

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Bloodborne is being turned into an R-rated animated film

2026-04-14T13:38:16-04:00

It's not a PC port or a remake, but Sony is returning to the Gothic world of Bloodborne. There aren't many details yet - Sony says that "plot details are still being kept under wraps" - but the game is being adapted into "an R-rated animated feature," with YouTuber Seán "Jacksepticeye" McLoughlin (a known Bloodborne fan) serving as a producer. No word on when the film might be premiering.

First released in 2015 on the PS4, Bloodborne is developed by FromSoftware, the same team behind the dark fantasy Souls series. Like those games, Bloodborne is known for its brutal difficulty, but it's also beloved for the fully realized city of Yharnam th …

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The Iranian Lego AI video creators credit their virality to ‘heart’

2026-04-10T16:58:38-04:00

Donald Trump has spun the recent rescue of a downed airman whose fighter jet was destroyed behind Iranian borders as a resounding success. But the story is very different in one of the many viral, AI-generated Lego videos that have been produced by Iranian content creation group Explosive Media in the weeks since the US and Israel began dropping bombs on the country. In Explosive Media's music video take on how things played out, the US military is a joke for losing multiple planes and helicopters, and spending "$100 million just to save one guy."

The video's shots of Lego jets exploding into $100 bills and golden coins reinforce the idea …

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The Exit 8 movie is even better if you play the game first

2026-04-08T16:53:40-04:00

There's an intriguing new video game adaptation to watch in theaters - and no, it's not that one. Exit 8, based on the game of the same name, hits the big screen on April 10th, and it's part of a burgeoning trend of horror movies directly inspired by indie games and liminal scares on YouTube. (See: the surprise success of Iron Lung and the upcoming Backrooms feature.) It's also the rare adaptation where I'd highly recommend playing the game before seeing the movie. Doing so makes the surreal experience of the film into something even stranger, and the good news is playing the game is a very easy thing to do.

The game is a curious project to …

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The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is beautiful but a little too busy

2026-04-04T12:08:24-04:00

With The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo entered the next phase of its plan to become a different kind of entertainment giant. Though it wasn't the company's first go at putting its iconic plumbers on the big screen, the film demonstrated that Nintendo could collaborate with partners like Illumination to produce box office hits. The first movie supercharged game sales at a time when the original Switch was nearing the end of its life cycle. And with Nintendo also looking to drive interest in its theme park experiences, it was a foregone conclusion that another Mario feature was in the pipeline.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is more of a re …

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Red Rooms makes online poker as thrilling as its serial killer

2026-03-30T05:56:20-04:00

Juliette Gariépy’s Kelly-Anne is an uncomfortable mystery. | Image: Nemesis Films Productions

It's rare for a movie to get technology right. And it's even rarer for that movie to be a thriller or horror, where realism takes a backseat to scares and tension. But Red Rooms mostly gets it. Nothing takes me out of a film quicker than a tech MacGuffin that might as well be literal magic. Yes, the phrase "dark web" will always sound a bit silly, but at no point during its 118 minutes does the tech become a distraction.

It's not the tech that makes Red Rooms great, though. It's just something that could have easily tanked an otherwise excellent movie. What carries the film is the expert tension building by director Pascal Plante. The perf …

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Some writing advice from Project Hail Mary’s Andy Weir

2026-03-24T12:32:45-04:00

Andy Weir on the set of Project Hail Mary. | Image: Amazon MGM Studios

Andy Weir has done pretty well when it comes to adaptations. His first novel, The Martian, was turned into a movie in 2015, and the Ridley Scott-directed picture earned more than $600 million at the box office. And Project Hail Mary just had a huge opening weekend that puts it on track to be one of the year's biggest movies. However, despite that success, Weir tells me that he does his best to keep the idea of an adaptation out of his mind when he starts a new novel. "I try not to think about it at all," he explains.

The reason, according to Weir, is that the two mediums are just so different. That's something he's learned over the last dec …

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